1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of building construction, and more specifically to providing standardized modular building construction components to realize a superstructure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today's on-site building construction techniques typically require various suppliers and contractors to provide the necessary elements, such as raw materials, in combination with the labor necessary to complete each step in the process for producing a building, such as a single family home. Many people and building materials are required to be at the site at the appropriate time.
On-site construction may in some instances suffer schedule delays and budget overages resulting from unforeseen site conditions, such as inclement weather or permit delays, changing site conditions, subcontractor unavailability, and lack of readily available raw materials. Project managers responsible for constructing buildings within budget and on-schedule must coordinate numerous process steps and building materials that are challenging to schedule and in some instances wholly unpredictable. The process of on-site building construction is often described as “controlled chaos.”
Currently, some on-site builders employ prefabricated construction techniques in erecting portions of the building, or the entire structure. Present pre-fabrication techniques can in some instances ease the need for availability of certain building materials and the labor associated with traditional non-prefabricated construction techniques. “Prefabrication” or “systems built housing” construction techniques typically involve one of four major market segments: manufactured, modular (which can be divided into custom and semi-custom), panelized, and pre-cut or kit homes. Each involves pre-formed materials, and all but manufactured homes must typically comply with local building codes.
Manufactured homes are complete dwelling units substantially or completely constructed in a factory in conformance with a national building code, an example of which is a mobile home. Modular homes are factory assembled residences built in units or sections, transported to a permanent site and erected on a foundation, and modular homes typically exclude mobile homes. Again, modular homes can be either custom or semi-custom. Custom pre-fabrication generally involves multiple modular boxes, or volumes, built to size, compliant with local codes, that define the desired final space, room, or portion thereof. Each modular box must be individually “engineered” to ensure adequate strength (e.g. shear and vertical loading), code compliance, and other structural design details. Buildings realized from custom prefabrication are therefore limited in benefits that can be offered, in some instances requiring months of additional “engineering” and code compliance verification prior to beginning of each building project. Due to the customized nature, this technique becomes problematic because it does not benefit from standardized parts. The modular “boxes” produced by today's custom methods resemble empty volumes “full of air” as the box is lacking in infrastructure, e.g. HVAC, electrical and plumbing, and exhibit low packing and shipping characteristics. Custom methods are of limited benefit due to higher costs associated with shipping “empty” modules, required individual design/engineering efforts, a lack of infrastructure, and the fact that the custom process generally provides no repeatable, reusable, or standardized components or economies of fabrication.
Semi-custom prefabrication methods typically involve a limited set of, for example, five to twenty complete individual building designs. Since the designs are known in advance, semi-custom prefabrication methods may enable configuring and building a limited set of components prior to construction. Many semi-custom designs involve choosing a pre-determined building design and constructing on-site with no modifications. In the situation where some customization is available, the resulting designs become are limited and can require re-engineering and re-approval of the initially selected building design. Semi-custom designs are further limited in that they typically require provisioning of space within multiple areas of the structure to accommodate addition of various custom features such as a tank-less in-wall water heater for a bathroom. Semi-custom designs become problematic in that the need for establishing or provisioning reserve space is inefficient and inhibits component standardization, resulting in higher overall costs.
As may be appreciated, certain advantages and disadvantages are associated with each type of housing construction technique. Certain modular systems can offer advantages over site and panelized systems in that all trades (electrical, plumbing, HVAC, etc.) can be organized in one place and can thus be readily controlled. This can minimize delays due to weather, use of tools can be leveraged, and supplies can be centralized and readily available to all trades.
Manufactured prefabrication construction of manufactured or “mobile” homes occurs in accordance with Housing and Urban Development (HUD) codes. The mobile homes produced from manufactured systems are mostly produced in a factory as a single complete structure. By HUD code, mobile homes must be transportable, with wheels attached to their foundations, and must be capable of being moved after installation. The mobile home is transported on a single vehicle or transported in a limited number of large sections and fixed at a semi-permanent location.
Manufactured systems such as these are limited, in that multi-family dwellings are not permissible according to current HUD codes. Also, due to the need to transport the dwellings on roadways, the total size of the structure is governed by inter- and intra-state vehicle codes.
Panelized prefabrication methods generally involve constructing only the building walls at a factory. The walls may be efficiently packed and shipped to the on-site construction location.
Panelized methods may afford flexible designs and allow for standardizing certain components, for example one component may be a wall with a door, where a different component may involve a window in lieu of or in combination with a door. Panelized methods become problematic because the effort to assemble the large number of panels required for realizing an entire building structure on-site remains labor intensive, including the need for internal components such as electrical, plumbing, etc. Panelized methods are typically limited to wall components and do not generally entail ceilings, floors, decks, roofs and other horizontally oriented “wall-like” components. The lack of horizontal components and the inability to define spaces for inclusion of desired features can result in increases in on-site assembly efforts, increasing costs and delaying schedule.
Off-site construction of repeatable standardized building modules in a controlled environment as part of a complete building system may eliminate many of the budget and schedule challenges associated with site-based construction.
It would therefore be beneficial to provide for standardized modular building construction that combines aspects and processes for pre-defined modules with infrastructure functional elements in an arrangement affording mobile delivery.